Side airbags intended for protecting the pelvis and/or chest and/or head of the occupants of automotive vehicles in the event of side impacts are well known in the art.
In this sense, side airbag modules located in the door of the vehicle are known in which the inflating means cause the cushion to be deployed upward such that it opens out over the window of the vehicle, thereby preventing the occupant from impacting against elements of the door and holding back his or her head so that it does not come out of the window. By way of example of airbag modules with these features, those described in patents EP 0590845, EP 686531, EP 703123, EP 844948, EP 857621 and EP 988185 can be mentioned.
Side airbag modules located in the seat of the vehicle either in the backrest such as, for example, the one described in patent GB 2322338, or in its lower part such as, for example, the one described in document WO 97/04995, have also been proposed.
These and other documents of the prior art show different ways of achieving deployment of the cushion which effectively protects the pelvis and/or chest and/or head of the occupants of automotive vehicles in the event of side impacts, such as dividing the cushion into compartments for a more effective protection of each of the mentioned members or using independent gas sources such that, for example, the area for protecting the chest inflates before the area provided for protecting the head.
However, known side airbags do not provide a satisfactory solution for being suitably positioned and effectively protecting the occupant of a reclining seat in the different positions that the backrest of the seat can adopt.
The present invention is intended for solving this drawback.